Hours after federal regulators lifted a two-week suspension on trading of Colorado Springs-based Advanced Cannabis stock, trades on another publicly traded marijuana company were suspended.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission suspended until April 24 trading on GrowLife (PHOT), a California company whose penny stock was at 50 cents at the time of the suspension.

News of the latest suspension had traders on edge and sent many marijuana stocks downward — some by as much as 40 percent — while industry watchers wondered whether the SEC was singularly targeting cannabis stocks.

The SEC said it suspended GrowLife trades on the OTCBB because of “potentially manipulative transactions” and questions over the accuracy of public information. Coincidentally, a company executive has sold off more than 500,000 shares of GrowLife since April 3, SEC records show.

The company said in a statement that was cooperating with the SEC and that it was not notified in advance of the sudden suspension.

About 60 publicly traded companies have emerged since medical marijuana was legalized in 20 states, with many companies involved on the industry periphery — infrastructure, real estate and consulting — rather than actually handling the product.

Most are traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board.

Advanced Cannabis, which resumed trading Thursday on the OTC, was down more than 38 percent.

“We’re busy handling day to day business and fielding shareholder/investor calls,” CEO Robert Frichtel said in an e-mail to The Denver Post. “We are pleased, however, that the suspension was lifted and that we continue on with the execution of our business plan.”

David is a member of the Investigations Team and has been at The Denver Post since 1999. He was a founding member of the team before writing about banking, finance, human services, consumer affairs, and business investigations. He has also worked at newspapers in New York, St. Louis and Detroit over a 35-year career that began at The Post.

On Monday, when the first cross-country eclipse in 99 years swoops across America, believers of all faiths will have their first chance in decades to put their particular religion’s eclipse traditions into practice.

A White House advisory council on infrastructure Thursday became the latest casualty of the pique of business leaders over President Donald Trump’s response to the hate-fueled violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The first solar eclipse to cross the continental United States in nearly a century comes at an especially inopportune time for many employers. From 10:15 a.m. Pacific until just before 3 p.m. Eastern time — some of the busiest hours of the workweek — the moon’s shadow will hit land in Newport, Ore. and leave the continent near Charleston, S.C.